Web of Souls
by Natta
Summary: Will the crew lose Beka forever?
1. Chapter 1

_As she concentrated all her thoughts on the noise outside, the images washed over her like a wave. Death, destruction, and torment. She hoped her daughters could not sense it fully, that their thoughts were not yet evolved that far. Her sons she hadn't seen for days, nor her husband. They had been taken to separate camps when it all started, she wasn't sure why. They were told this was all for their protection, but she couldn't quite believe it. How could families be torn apart, so many people be crammed into one small space, in the name of protection?_

_Some part of her believed that they'd have been better off outside of the bunkers. Her highly trained senses could feel everything that went on out there, and it shook her to the core knowing that eventually, at some point, it would come inside. Haunt every single person that was sitting in the small space, so huddled together they could hardly breathe. Even if it never came, she wondered if they would all be consumed by fear and die eventually._

_"Mother?" The small, thin voice of her youngest daughter came from next to her, rising above the thoughts that were swirling through her head._

_"Yes?"_

_"I'm afraid..." The little girl stared at her with wide eyes, as if praying her mother would make it all go away, the visions that were doubtlessly fighting their way into her mind, the heat and sweat inside the bunker, and the noise coming from the outside, working its way in. It broke her heart that she couldn't. Instead she pulled her daughter closer to her and shut her eyes, praying that this would be over sooner or later._

_They were coming..._

Beka Valentine was walking swiftly through the corridors to reach the office of the Captain of the Andromeda Ascendant. He had called his XO in a few minutes earlier, waking her up from her sleep, claiming an emergency. Her hair tousled from sleep and in yesterday's clothes, she entered the office to see a very serious Dylan Hunt on the other side of the desk.

Despite being Andromeda's XO, Beka was not quite officer material and did not, as her Captain, wear a uniform, but rather tops with slits and holes in all the right places, which often served to distract both Dylan and the other renegades she had brought aboard – the male ones anyway. Today, however, Captain Hunt did not look in a mood to be distracted. He passed her a flexi and motioned for her to sit down.

"There is an urgent distress signal from the planet Astara. His first officer frowned, giving him a confused look.

"Astara? Never heard of it..."

"Apparently they're very reclusive. Paranoid some may say. Until now obviously..." He leaned back onto his chair, resting his chin in his hand as she read the flexi, her face growing more tired as she did.

"Civil war."

"Very bad, apparently. The government is asking for assistance." Beka dropped the flexi on the table and gave her Captain a scrutinising glance.

"So what's the problem?" He looked up, his eyes tired and searching.

"What makes you think there's a problem? She gave him a crooked smile, shaking her head slightly and straightening up where she sat.

"I know you, Dylan..." She paused, watching his tightly closed lips emerge into a tiny smile. "I know something's wrong. Otherwise, we'd be on our way there already." He nodded his head slightly and stood up, wringing his hands together as her gaze followed him across the room.

"They're...telepaths. Everyone on Astara is a telepath." His first officer frowned.

"And you have a problem with that? I'm sure Trance..." He shook his head impatiently.

"No, I don't have a problem with telepaths. Generally. The thing is..." He paused again, putting his hands on his hips, looking straight at Beka. "Before the fall...I had some interaction with Astara, you could say. They _use_ their abilities in strange ways, no doubt this is what caused the war, and they are very, very selfish."

"And because they were selfish in the past, we will abandon them now?" the blonde countered. "That was 300 years ago, no point punishing them for whatever it is their forefathers have done..." He shook his head again.

"No! It's not a punishment, I'm just being...cautious. You see, in the old days, it wouldn't have been unlike Astara to fake a distress call in this way, only to have an attack ready when you come. They may have changed, but if that's how they behaved when the universe made sense, imagine how they will have evolved after the fall. I'm just...worried that this will turn out to be some scam." Beka leaned back, her body relaxing.

"We usually get out of it."

"Yes, but with these telepaths...they'd know our every move before we make it! I just have this feeling that if we respond to this call, something bad." Dylan sat back down and looked at the flexi his XO had left on the desk. "But on the other hand..." Beka raised an eyebrow. "People like the Astarans could be valuable for a renewed Commonwealth. Maybe I'd be a fool to pass up the opportunity because of fear." He sighed and put it back down again. "Maybe they really are having a civil war. Only..."

"What?"

"The message is rather old, we just came across it by chance. It's not terribly old, but...well, it's possible we could be too late." Beka pursed her lips and stood up.

"Yes, but Dylan..."

"I know, I know. I'm Mr Save-Everyone, right?" He smiled, then laughed a little as she swatted him on the shoulder. "Well, sorry to keep you up, but..."

"That's all right. So, to Astara." The commanding officers of the Andromeda quickly made their way to Command to go off on yet another rescue mission.


	2. Chapter 2

ilexx: That's not really important, but if you really want, I guess I could elaborate. :-p

Yvy: Thanks! Oh, and...any news on "Sun"?

me: Yes, the fandom is a bit thin on the ground unfortunately...

Thanks for the reviews, and on to chapter 2:

* * *

"There is nothing here to contradict their claim, Captain," Rommie stated after a thorough sweep of the planet's surface. "Everything points to a civil war. However..."

"What?"

"It appears we may be too late. The war appears to be in its finishing stages, and I doubt it's turned out well for either side." She paused. "Troops appear to be...scattered, lost...and I'm getting a lot of erratic readings from all over the planet. Dylan, there may not be much we can do to help here." Beka gave her captain a questioning glance, wondering whether he would pay his ship heed and leave. No, of course he wouldn't. And he wouldn't be Dylan if he did.

"Well, there are still people alive, right?" he asked Rommie, who gave an affirming nod.

"As I said, scattered troups are on the planet, and I'm also reading a few safety bunkers...many of which seem to be broken into, but some are intact. I can't scan for lifesigns within them, but it seems worth looking at." Dylan took a deep breath and placed his hands on his hips.

"Right. Well, just in case, I don't want to bring Andromeda too close. Beka, you and I will take the Maru down to the surface. We'll draw less attention to ourselves that way." His first officer raised her eyebrows as she followed him off Command and started walking with him at a fast pace down the corridors of the ship.

"Attention? Dylan, you said these people were mind-readers."

"Don't remind me," he groaned. "They are, yes, but I'm hoping this whole thing they're going through might be enough to distract them from our thoughts."

"Mind-readers give me the creeps," Beka said with a shudder. "But creepy or not, it seems they were telling the truth. I doubt they'd make it look this real just to get the Andromeda from us."

"Well, I don't know what to hope for right now," Dylan sighed in reply. "Let's just get down there and check out some of those bunkers. We don't want to get too involved in their conflict, but those people in there are likely civilians, children...people who are innocent in this whole thing. At least we can help them."

The journey down was quiet, both of them thinking about the powers of telepathy, and neither being particularly happy with what they came to realise.

"I've located an intact bunker," Beka said eventually, starting to steer the Maru down towards the surface. "There are no troops in the area, so we should be safe to land." The Captain nodded his consent, and she began the descent towards the bunker in question. The land, they discovered as they left the ship, was bare and desolate, bearing resemblance to that of an earthy desert or a scrap-heap. Here and there on the ground were corpses as well as dropped guns which seemed overly primitive for such an otherwise advanced race. The sky was dark and ominous, as if the very heavens reflected the chaos down on the ground.

"It's over here," Beka whispered, feeling an odd sensation of worry about waking the dead soldiers. "See the roof, there?" She pointed to a barely distinguishable building which must have been a basement, since only the roof was even visible from the ground. "I don't know how to get in though."

"Well, either there'll be an opening in the roof," Dylan replied, "or some type of hole in the ground. I'm sure it'll be securely locked though." She gave him a thoughtful look.

"Do you think the occupants could get out from inside? I mean, if they wanted to." He shrugged.

"One would hope so. Then again, maybe they assumed the soldiers would be alive to let them out afterwards." Beka shuddered at the thought of being locked inside such a place while others fought outside.

"Well, we can let them out," she tried to cheer them both up. Starting to climb the roof, they looked for an opening, but were unable to find one. Eventually, Dylan jumped back onto the ground and walked around the roof, suddenly giving a surprised yell. "What?"

"There's something here...hang on." He kneeled down and, after a few moments of investigating, lifted up his forcelance and shot at whatever it was he had found. Beka jumped down from the roof and gave him a curious glance.

He appeared to have shot at a locking mechanism, which caused the ground just in front of it to open like a hatch. There was a ladder leading downwards, although they couldn't see the end of it. They both stared at it before Dylan made a grand gesture towards it.

"Ladies first." She gave him an annoyed glance before starting to climb down. He grinned at her as he followed. The climb down was short, but once they got down they couldn't see much.

"I'd have thought it'd be easy from now," Beka muttered as they both tried to fit inside the cramped space. "Is this a door or what?" She grabbed a handle and pulled. Not surprisingly, it didn't open. In the limited space she had, she gestured for him towards the lock. He pulled out his forcelance again and shot it.

"Right," he said, "let's get in there and save some people."

"That ought to be your catchphrase," she grinned in response.

"What about the one's I've already got? I quite like _Let's bring it_..."

"All right, all right. Let's bring it then." She opened the door and walked inside, then blinked a few times as she looked around her. The room was dimly lit by a single bulb in the ceiling, and there were people packed everywhere. Old ladies, young women, little girls...and they were all dead.


End file.
